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Phil Rinaldi is the CEO of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, which runs the South Philly refinery. He’s also the public face of the campaign to make Philadelphia into a globally consequential energy hub. Last month, Rinaldi, the Chamber of Commerce and other energy executives hosted a summit at Drexel University designed to sell the region as a prospective energy hub and lure manufacturers from all over the world to Philadelphia.

It’s a controversial vision, with many opponents. But it also represents a tangible and potentially huge economic opportunity for a city with a crippling 26 percent poverty rate and a severe shortage of quality jobs for workers without college degrees.

Rinaldi proposes constructing a new, very big pipeline, with enough capacity not just to supply existing demand (which is how pipelines usually get built) but future demand as well. He imagines companies with high-energy needs moving to the city in big numbers, both driving up demand for gas and creating jobs.